CPA Pleads Guilty in Mortgage Fraud Scheme

As part of his guilty plea, Horrow, a Certified Public Accountant who owned and operated his own accounting company, Horrow and Associates, which operated in both Delaware and Chester Counties, admitted that he committed bank fraud by helping one of his clients, George Barnardof Newtown Square [(who owned Capital Financial Mortgage Corporation (“CFMC”)] and who was charged previously in an indictment with various offenses stemming from a $13 million fraud scheme who owned) to defraud lenders into issuing mortgages for 3 multi-million dollar New Jersey Shore beach mansions and a yacht based on false tax returns, false audit reports, and other false information. Horrow admitted that he repeatedly provided false tax returns for Barnard to submit to lenders on which Horrow inflated Barnard’s income by hundreds of thousands of dollars, when Horrow knew that the lenders were going to be relying upon the inflated income figures in approving Barnard’s loan requests.

Horrow faces a maximum sentence of 120 years’ imprisonment, a five-year period of supervised release, a $4,000,000 fine, a $400 special assessment, and a likely advisory sentencing guideline range of 41 – 51 months’ imprisonment. Horrow also agreed, as part of his plea, to make restitution of over $2,965,000.

The plea was announced by United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigative Division, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael S. Lowe.

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